CLYDEBANK manager Budgie McGhie is convinced Saturday’s league opener against Ardrossan Winton Rovers will show how far his new look squad have come.

The Bankies will travel to Ayrshire on Saturday on the back of an impressive pre-season and Sectional League Cup campaign. They topped their group with four wins from four in the cup and face Kirkintilloch Rob Roy in the quarter-final tonight (Wednesday).

McGhie is pleased with his side’s progress since bringing in a host of new faces this summer, however he knows the first full examination will come on Saturday as their Super League First challenge gets under way.

The Bankies boss missed last Wednesday’s 3-2 friendly defeat to Pollok to take in Ardrossan’s match with Kilbirnie Ladeside — McGhie was impressed with what he seen from last season’s Ayrshire District champions.

He said: “On that showing it will be a tough task. They drew 2-2 with Kilbirnie and Kilbirnie have been going well. They have good players and even from just that game you can see why they have done well in the last year or so.

“There is no doubt it will be a really hard place to go and come back with something.” Clydebank last week released Kyle Cumming from his contract. McGhie revealed it was felt a move would be best for both parties, with plenty of competition for the forward positions at Clydebank.

However despite a wealth of options up front, McGhie insists he is happy with the numbers in his squad and has not been told to trim the numbers down, although one or two might move on in the coming weeks.

He said: “Kyle is still quite young and between us we had a wee chat and felt it was probably better for him to go somewhere where he is going to have more of a regular game.

“He leaves with our best wishes and I hope he goes somewhere where he is happy in his football.

“I’m happy with the numbers, unless I’m told to trim the squad further I won’t, maybe one or two.

“At the moment we are in a period where we have two or three games a week.

“Eventually that will disappear and it’s every Saturday and some midweek friendlies.

“Then when the weather gets bad sometimes you can have one game every four or five weeks and that can be when some players become restless, but we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.”